A note on the mean residual life of a coherent system with a cold standby component

In this paper, we investigate the effect of a cold standby component on the mean residual life (MRL) of a system. When the system fails, a cold standby component is immediately put in operation. We particularly focus on the coherent systems in which, after putting the standby component into operation, the failure of the system is due to the next component failure. For these systems, we define MRL functions and obtain their explicit expressions. Also some stochastic ordering results are provided. Such systems include k-out-of-n systems. Hence, our results extend some results in literature.     

将生命还给社会:传记法作为一种总体叙事方式

在田野民族志和历史编纂学中，传记法是一种重要的叙事方式。本文从分析林耀华的作品入手，将其置于20世纪20年代以来的社会学和人类学思想脉络中，并在此基础上探讨传记法在中国历史和社会研究中的潜力与可能性。本文将谱系法、个人生命史和社会生命论归纳为“传记法三角”。在（扩展）谱系法和社会结构论的基础上，生命传记法可以呈现一个或多个人的生命历史，作为大历史中的片段。不过，现象学路径有其自身的限度，不能离开对中央政权本身和总体结构的考察。在“时势”和“社会结构”的变迁过程中呈现生命传记，才不会只是个体的故事，而有希望成为一种对中国“总体”社会生活的有力叙事方式。     

Effect of tuberculosis on immune restoration among HIV-infected patients receiving antiretroviral therapy

In this article, time to immune recovery during antiretroviral therapy was estimated and compared between HIV-infected children with and without tuberculosis (TB). CD4?T-cell restoration was used as a criterion for determining immune recovery. The median residual lifetime function, which is more intuitive and robust compared to the frequently used measures of lifetime data, was used to estimate time to CD4?T-cell restoration. The median residual lifetime is not influenced by extreme observations and heavy-tailed distributions which are commonly encountered in clinical studies. Permutation-based methods were used to compare the CD4?T-cell restoration times between the two groups of patients. Our results indicate that children with TB had uniformly higher median residual lifetimes to immune recovery compared to those without TB. Although TB was associated with slower CD4?T-cell restoration, the differences between the restoration times of the two groups were not statistically significant.     

Optimal design of repetitive group sampling plans for Weibull and gamma distributions with applications and comparison to the Birnbaum–Saunders distribution

In this paper, we propose a multiple deferred state repetitive group sampling plan which is a new sampling plan developed by incorporating the features of both multiple deferred state sampling plan and repetitive group sampling plan, for assuring Weibull or gamma distributed mean life of the products. The quality of the product is represented by the ratio of true mean life and specified mean life of the products. Two points on the operating characteristic curve approach is used to determine the optimal parameters of the proposed plan. The plan parameters are determined by formulating an optimization problem for various combinations of producer's risk and consumer's risk for both distributions. The sensitivity analysis of the proposed plan is discussed. The implementation of the proposed plan is explained using real-life data and simulated data. The proposed plan under Weibull distribution is compared with the existing sampling plans. The average sample number (ASN) of the proposed plan and failure probability of the product are obtained under Weibull, gamma and Birnbaum–Saunders distributions for a specified value of shape parameter and compared with each other. In addition, a comparative study is made between the ASN of the proposed plan under Weibull and gamma distributions.     

Travailler ou ne pas travailler: la motivation professionnelle autre que pécuniaire et ses prédicteurs,une question d'époque

Pour mesurer la motivation professionnelle autre que pécuniaire, on demande généralement aux gens s'ils continueraient à travailler s'ils gagnaient au loto. Les auteurs rappellent les conclusions des études menées sur la base des réponses à cette question dans différents pays dont Israël, tout en recherchant l'influence en la matière des variables démographiques et des différentes dimensions du sens du travail. Ils constatent un net recul de la motivation professionnelle autre que pécuniaire au nouveau millénaire, et une évolution des facteurs en cause. Ils analysent ces résultats et leurs effets potentiels sur le travail et l'emploi au regard de l'évolution économique et sociale en Israël.     

Displaying Gender: Transgender People's Strategies in Everyday Life

Drawing upon data from in‐depth interviews with transgender people in Portugal and in the United Kingdom, this article critically reflects upon different ways through which transgender people recreate their gender displays, particularly in terms of gender embodiment and aesthetics, in order to navigate their everyday lives. I focus on four strategies of articulating gender displays with one's own gender subjectivities: “blending in,” “masking,” “naturalizing,” and “subverting.” These strategies are not exclusive of one another. They are used differently throughout the participants' own lives in accordance to the social contexts they were in.     

An algorithmic approach to construct D-optimal saturated designs for logistic model

In this paper, locally D-optimal saturated designs for a logistic model with one and two continuous input variables have been constructed by modifying the famous Fedorov exchange algorithm. A saturated design not only ensures the minimum number of runs in the design but also simplifies the row exchange computation. The basic idea is to exchange a design point with a point from the design space. The algorithm performs the best row exchange between design points and points form a candidate set representing the design space. Naturally, the resultant designs depend on the candidate set. For gain in precision, intuitively a candidate set with a larger number of points and the low discrepancy is desirable, but it increases the computational cost. Apart from the modification in row exchange computation, we propose implementing the algorithm in two stages. Initially, construct a design with a candidate set of affordable size and then later generate a new candidate set around the points of design searched in the former stage. In order to validate the optimality of constructed designs, we have used the general equivalence theorem. Algorithms for the construction of optimal designs have been implemented by developing suitable codes in R.     

高职院校学前教育专业学生顶岗实习满意度现状调查

顶岗实习是学前教育专业综合性最强的实践教学环节,学前教育专业学生顶岗实习的满意度情况关乎顶岗实习工作的质量。本研究通过自编满意度调查问卷对湖南省五所高职院校参加学前教育顶岗实习学生进行调查,发现学生对顶岗实习总体满意度比较高,学生对公办园的满意度显著高于民办园,学生顶岗实习满意度会影响学生的从业意愿。     

iDecide: supporting inclusive decision-making in European schools

iDecide is a KA3 - Support for policy reform project with partners from public and private sectors- from Cyprus, Romania, Greece, Ireland and Portugal. iDecide was conceptualised with the aim of supporting school leaders and teachers in their efforts marginalised groups, and to support their learning in their everyday decision-making. The iDecide toolkit supports the decision-making processes that the majority of schools face every day in all aspects of school life (visits and excursions, school projects, parental involvement, school canteen, homework, students’ council etc). The iDecide toolkit has the capacity to provide teachers and school leaders with practical guidelines for these common decisions in straightforward, simple language. It also gives school leaders the opportunity to retrieve pupils’ and parents' opinions through online polls and forum discussions. This short paper describes the iDecide toolkit functions.